PROLOGUE: What follows was written as an appeal to our softer, more reflective and discerning greater selves as we seek a better world.

One day,
throwing
a bunch of stuff away,

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The hysterical headline on the Fox News website screams out “John Cusack Calls for ‘Satanic Death’ of Fox News, GOP Leaders.”

Huh? Really?

John Cusack, star of “Say Anything” and “Hot Tub Time Machine ,” responded to a question on Twitter about the proposed, highly controversial Islamic center to be built in New York near Ground Zero.

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From Women’s Equality Day to Vaginal Spray

September 3, 2010
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Why are nit-wit women like Fiorina and Palin undermining Women’s liberation?

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Progressive Post

I was preparing for my little ritual last week, the one I practice every August 26, Women’s Equality Day, to celebrate our right to vote. … Well, not really to celebrate, but to at least recognize the Constitution’s 19th Amendment, declaring women’s suffrage. Hmmm, nope, not even to recognize it, no, more like to contemplate the 1920 passage of the amendment, because— . Well, I suppose, actually, to rant about it would be more accurate. In fact, to complain bitterly is what I mean. Yep, bitterly — because it took so damn long, and in the end, we had won the vote but we still didn’t have equal rights, and we still don’t have equal rights today.

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3 in 10 working-age San Diego County households can’t afford basic costs of living

September 3, 2010
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By Center for Policy Initiatives

Study shows 229,000 households in the red, including many with full-time jobs

Almost a third of working-age households in San Diego County have incomes below what they need to meet basic living expenses. Half of those struggling households include someone with a full-time job.

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Attorney for WikiLeaks suspect says he’s seen no evidence on documents

September 2, 2010
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The attorney for Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, the accused WikiLeaks leaker, says he doesn’t have any information indicating that Manning leaked tens of thousands of pages of documents on the Afghanistan war to the WikiLeaks website.

“I have not talked to my client about that. I have not seen anything, nor have I heard anything that would definitively tie him to that,” said attorney David Coombs in an exclusive interview with CNN.

Manning has not been charged with leaking those Afghanistan field reports, but U.S. military officials have told CNN that he is the prime suspect in that leak.

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Greenpeace ’shuts down’ Arctic oil rig

September 2, 2010
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Greenpeace claims to have shut down offshore drilling by a British oil company at a controversial site in the Arctic after four climbers began an occupation of the rig just after dawn.

The environment campaigners said the four protesters evaded a small flotilla of armed Danish navy and police boats which have been guarding the rigs in Baffin Bay off Greenland since the Greenpeace protest ship Esperanza arrived last week.

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Boxer and Fiorina Square Off in Debate for Senate Seat

September 2, 2010
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Last night (9/01/10) California got its first—and only—scheduled chance to see its 2010 Senatorial candidates square off in a debate. Incumbent Barbara Boxer, seeking a fourth term as the Junior Senator from California, met her Republican opponent and harsh critic, millionaire Carly Fiorina at St. Mary’s College in Moraga. It was our first, and likely our last, opportunity to compare the two candidates’ positions on the issues that will matter most to Californians now, in these deeply turbulent economic times, and well into the future.

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QUICK! CHECK THIS OUT: Frank Gormlie’s Secret Plan to Take Over the Ocean Beach Town Council

September 2, 2010
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Psst! Hey Ocean Beach. Quick – check this out! I just found Frank Gormlie’s papers that he tried to burn recently, and they’re entitled: “Secret Plans To Take Over the OB Town Council.” It looks like he tried to burn them in the fireplace. But I rescued enough of the documents to put together where it was all headed. And it’s not pretty.

My name is George, and I’m Frank’s brother, but we’re estranged, and he doesn’t know I got the ADMIN password for the blog, and he doesn’t know that I’m doing this, or that I even found some of the burnt documents!

I’ve managed to decipher the substance of the plans, and I outline them here:

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PEACE RANT: The peace movement needs to stand up and take some responsibility and some credit.

September 2, 2010
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by Molly MacGuire
The peace movement of this past decade was George Bush’s tea parties.

Amidst the gnashing of teeth and stomping of feet by peace movement types – people like me – expressing our frustrations, distrust and exasperation over this whole change in Iraq, there is something that has to be brought up. Whether it’s just the appearance of the end of US combat after the 7 year war, or there has been a significant shift in American military power, there is something that I think has been overlooked.

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Why aren’t we celebrating? It’s the end of US combat in Iraq, isn’t it? – Voices from San Diego’s peace movement

September 1, 2010
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Candidate Barack Obama pledged to end the war in Iraq. More than any other Presidential candidate during that long, long campaign – Obama was the most poised to declare himself as the anti-war candidate. And he did. And the peace movement and the left in general ate it up – for good reason.

The peace movement had been in the streets protesting the Iraq invasion, war and occupation by Bush for 6 long years, since the Fall of 2002. Every year – in March – on the invasion’s anniversary, the peace movement would take to the streets. We welcomed a candidate of Barack’s stature joining our side. And we joined him as well, shooting his popularity up, beyond Edwards, Kucinich, Clinton, … and ultimately beyond John McCain.

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Volunteers needed for September survey of downtown homeless in San Diego.

September 1, 2010
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About the Downtown San Diego Registry Week

The Downtown Partnership’s Board of Directors and its Social Issues Committee have teamed up with the nationally renowned organization Common Ground and its 100,000 Homes Campaign to administer a survey and create a by-name registry of everyone experiencing homelessness on the streets downtown. Local partners in this effort include the United Way, the San Diego Housing Commission, the Centre City Development Corporation and several other organizations. The registry data is analyzed and broken down into sub-populations (veterans, medically fragile, seniors, youth) and then prioritized, matching those in the greatest need to housing.

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“Voice of San Diego” catches KUSI doin’ the spin on Prop D – the sales tax measure

September 1, 2010
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Editor: The local San Diego government watch-dog web site, the Voice of San Diego, has caught TV station KUSI working the spin machine in favor of opponents of Prop D, the sales tax increase.
How Political Spin Became Fact on KUSI

by Keegan Kyle/Voice of San Diego/ August 31, 2010

Here’s a lesson from the budding campaign over Proposition D that shows how quickly political spin can become accepted fact. ….

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Open Letter to the Ocean Beach Town Council: Release your Bylaws

August 31, 2010
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This is a letter sent to the Ocean Beach Town Council today, August 30th, requesting that they release their Bylaws and election procedures. I’m asking that the Council send a copy to some of the other community organizations, such as the Mainstreet Association, the Planning Board, or the Historical Society.

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The Ocean Beach Town Council of Yesteryear …

August 31, 2010
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Come meet the OB Town Council of yesteryear … of 1972. OB community activists were engaged in a stand-off with the then president Bob Miller. Here is a portion of the front page of the original OB Rag in March 1972.

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OB FLASHES – News, Calendar, Whatever – August 30, 2010

August 30, 2010
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ALL DETAILS AND LINKS INSIDE:
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OB Restaurants, bars and coffee houses promote themselves in new association
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Obecians get new pipes, more torn-up streets, and eventually, a better flow
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“Terriers” Spent $20 Million in San Diego – Set to Air Sept 8th
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COSTCO-Lowe’s also wants Midway Postal Center
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Point Loma Planners approve revised bylaws
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Ocean Beach Planning Board general meeting – Wednesday, September 1
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OB Historical Society to dig up old bones
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Animal Activist to speak September 1 at World Wide ESL
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$30 will get ya in the Jazz 88 OB Music & Art Festival! $200 will get ya special seating and special food

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The very, very rich and their henchmen who are out to “get” President Obama

August 30, 2010
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Editor: While Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin debate with the news organizations how many people showed up at their tea party rally in Washington, DC on Saturday (was it 87,000 estimated by CBS, or 100,000 (Palin) or 500,000?), we need to note some recent interesting articles about the very, very rich people who are out to get President Obama, and the people that work for them.
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The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party
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The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.
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It’s Witch-Hunt Season with Limbaugh and the GOP
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How Obama Got Rolled by Wall Street

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San Diego Food Bank reports requests for food at all-time high

August 28, 2010
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Layoffs, bankruptcies and other effects of the naggingly ailing economy are leading a record number of county residents to seek out donated food, the county’s leading food-relief organization reported Friday.

The San Diego Food Bank said its distributions are at an all-time high. In the just-completed fiscal year, the 33-year-old nonprofit group handed out 15.3 million pounds of food, a 56 percent increase from the 9.1 million pounds two years earlier.

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A funny thing happened on my way out of the town council meeting …

August 27, 2010
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Amazing.

After all that’s been said and done around my candidacy and membership failures with the Ocean Beach Town Council, they still sent me a ballot so I could vote on the remaining candidates (no, my name was not on it).

I was specifically told that I could not vote either. I could not be a candidate and I could not vote. If my business was not a good enough reason for me to vote as a business owner in OB, then it’s not good enough for me to vote in the board election.

But what happened?

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Narc, Narc! Who’s There? Allegations Shake Pro-Pot Activists

August 19, 2010
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They were the poster children for San Diego’s medical marijuana community.

Eugene Davidovich was an ex-Navy man in his late twenties, earning a decent living as a software developer and project manager at Direct EDI, a local company that specializes in logistics solutions for businesses. Born and raised in San Diego, he was also a medical marijuana patient who’d organized a collective to cultivate and distribute pot on a non-profit basis following the guidelines set forth in Proposition 215.

Donna Lambert lived with the pain for as long as she could stand it. Struggling with a handful of serious illnesses, including hepatitis C, cirrhosis, cancer and Sjoegrens Disease, she began relying on marijuana to cope with chemotherapy.

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City moves to block free juice along Newport Ave.

August 19, 2010
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Editor: There’s a new ‘bad boy’ in town, and he’s not a bum or a homeless person. He … or she … is the person who grabs free electricity from the Newport Avenue light poles. The “new” U-T (Union-Tribune) felt this story still had legs and quotes our own Denny Knox, CEO of the OB Mainstreet Assoc., and Jim Musgrove, head of the OB Town Council. Go to it.
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City street crews are looking to curb the number of people in Ocean Beach who siphon electricity from outlets on street lamps to power everything from cell phones to recreational vehicles.

The San Diego Streets Division is awaiting another shipment of tamper-proof utility covers that restrict access to electrical sockets on a three-block stretch of Newport Avenue ….

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Getting to Know the Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association, Part 1: The Founders and the Power of Idealism

August 23, 2010
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I dropped by the Ocean Beach MainStreet Association (OBMA) the other day to learn more about the group that organizes my favorite event of the year, the OB Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off. It turns out that this active organization is not only a rich source of news about their own activities but have some great stories to tell from the past.

The first thing I wanted to know more about was the origins of the OBMA. Denny Knox, Executive Director and the Associate Director, Claudia Jack, sat down with me at the large table in the office just off Newport Avenue on Bacon Street near Nati’s restaurant between Seams to Me and Surf N Sea Custom Wetsuits and Repair.

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Savin’ Lives and Takin’ Names – the Lifeguards of Ocean Beach

August 20, 2010
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Editor: This is another in a series of spotlights on the public servants of Ocean Beach. An OBcean can live their entire life in OB and not know who these usually heroic people are – the individuals who work for us. In an earlier post, we interviewed the SDPD Community Relations Officer for OB and the Western Division. Here, Annie Lane takes on the lifeguards of OB.
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by Annie Lane / Special to the OB Rag / August 20, 2010

Meet Jacob Magness, a native San Diegan who’s spent the last 13 years saving lives in Ocean Beach.

As one of OB’s permanent lifeguards, Magness, 32, is no stranger to the ocean or making rescues. In fact, he’s been in or near the water for the last 24 years.

“I started surfing at about eight or nine years old,” he said, “and started really liking the beach and the waves. So then my mom actually found a junior lifeguards program and signed me up.”

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Actors from “Terriers” discuss the series

August 20, 2010
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Terriers is a show about two private investigators who are tenacious, just like the terrier dogs.

In the series Terriers, Michael Raymond-James plays Britt Pollack and Donal Logue plays Hank Dolworth, two men with questionable pasts who join together to form their own private investigation team. On August 3, 2010 the two gentlemen along with the producers discussed their new series with members of the Television Critics Association.

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Obama, the Middle Class, and Progressives

August 21, 2010
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by Ariana Huffington / Huffington Post / August 21, 2010

As we head into the stretch run of the 2010 midterms, and get closer to the halfway point of President Obama’s first term, we’re hearing a lot of media chatter about the “enthusiasm gap” plaguing Democrats. There is also a lot of talk about whether progressives — aka “the professional left” — should or shouldn’t be disappointed in Obama. In a post about last month’s Netroots Nation gathering in Las Vegas, Matt Yglesias wrote that at this year’s event, “the dominant mood” was “depressed” and that he could feel a “considerable degree of ill will toward Barack Obama and his administration.”

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Alley clean-ups are a dirty job but they’re our alleys

August 21, 2010
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It was the busiest lot in all Ocean Beach this morning – August 21st – at 7:30 on the 4700 block of Santa Monica Avenue – across from OB Elementary. Church volunteers, homeless people, and community activists were gathering for an early morning breakfast and scheduled alley clean-up. Patty and I arrived at that moment, half asleep but ready with our work clothes.

A while later and by time breakfast was served – a regular thing every Saturday morning at this site – a hundred people had gathered. Some guys were singing and playing a guitar, med students from UCSD were taking blood pressures, and houseless people were collecting food, soaps, and other personal hygiene items handed to them by a half dozen good-natured souls who had arrived early and stood behind tables.

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OB Town Council Candidates and Their Statements

August 23, 2010
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The Ocean Beach Town Council is having an election starting this week to fill 7 seats that are being opened. And there are eight candidates running for those seats, six of them incumbents.

The Council is sponsoring a Candidates’ Forum during their regular public meeting, this Wednesday, August 24th, at the Masonic Center located at 1711 Sunset Cliffs Boulevard.

Here are the names and statements of the candidates, provided to us by the OBTC …..

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Two Important Community Meetings Coming Up – Good Time to Get Involved

August 24, 2010
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A confluence of events is merging here in Ocean Beach this week that in themselves display a healthy village, a social stage active with its many players: on Tuesday night – August 24th – there is the second in a series of community forums on OB homelessness at the local Baptist Church.

And then on Wednesday night -the 25th – there is the OB Town Council meeting and its annual Candidates Forum up at the Masonic Center.

With these two important neighborhood meetings conjoined closely in time, we have a strong indication here of a an active – hence healthy – social and political life underwriting this coastal village.

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2 Types of skunks in the neighborhood – one walks upright.

August 24, 2010
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by Judi Curry

Did any of you drive down Sunset Cliffs this weekend and get a whiff of the aroma of our neighborhood denizens?

I would have loved to have seen how the person driving the car that was right next to the skunk got into the driver’s seat. Did he step over the skunk? Get in from the passenger seat? Did the car reek? I didn’t envy that person.

When I moved into the Ocean Beach/Pt. Loma area the only skunks I saw were dead ones, usually on Canon near the trails. When they began showing their tails in my area I was surprised. There was a lot building going on, and I imagine that their “homes” were being destroyed.

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The dirty deal nobody wants to talk about – Carnival Cruise Lines.

August 24, 2010
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by Pat Flannery / Blog of San Diego

This is the dirty Agreement that is spawning multiple lies about the Embarcadero Oval Park. The fact is that a Panamanian company, the Carnival Corporation, advanced the Port District $12 million at 4.5% interest to construct two home ports, one on B. Street Pier and one on Broadway Pier. The sole source of funds for repayment of this loan, which must be repaid in full by April 30, 2015, shall be a Special Facility Fee charged to each passenger while Carnival branded vessels will receive preferential berthing rights.

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Why Wikileaks Must Be Protected? … and more …

August 24, 2010
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On 26 July, Wikileaks released thousands of secret US military files on the war in Afghanistan. Cover-ups, a secret assassination unit and the killing of civilians are documented. In file after file, the brutalities echo the colonial past. From Malaya and Vietnam to Bloody Sunday and Basra, little has changed. The difference is that today there is an extraordinary way of knowing how faraway societies are routinely ravaged in our name. Wikileaks has acquired records of six years of civilian killing for both Afghanistan and Iraq, of which those published in the Guardian, Der Spiegel and the New York Times are a fraction.

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Frank Gormlie: “I’ve just been kicked off the OB Town Council’s candidate ballot.”

August 24, 2010

Today, around mid-morning, I received a phone call from Nancy Vaughn, the elections coordinator for the Ocean Beach Town Council. As you may know, the OBTC is having their annual elections beginning tomorrow (Wednesday Aug 25th) with their Candidates Forum – and up to now, I have been an official candidate.

On the phone Nancy Vaughn told me that I am in fact ineligible to be a candidate for the Board. She even told me that the OB Rag is ineligible to be a member. The Rag had joined the OBTC over three months ago and our dues fees were accepted. My name was on the official list of candidates sent out by the Council two days ago. My Letter of Intent declaring my candidacy had been accepted over a week ago. Yet on the eve of the balloting, I’m told I can’t run for one of the 7 seats that are open.

Here is the reason that Vaughn cited ….

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San Diego Union-Tribune: OB Rag publisher in flap with beach town’s rules

August 24, 2010

By Christopher Cadelago / UNION-TRIBUNE / August 24, 2010 at 2:43 p.m.

OCEAN BEACH — Frank Gormlie, a lawyer, activist and co-founder of the OB Rag, is calling on OBceans to join him at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Masonic Center to demand he be allowed to run as a candidate for the Ocean Beach Town Council’s board of directors.

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Out of Control Egg Producer Flouts Regulations: Consumers Deal with 500 Million Salmonella-Tainted Eggs

August 25, 2010
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by Jill Richardson / AlterNet / August 25, 2010 |

The recent recall of 500 million eggs due to salmonella should surprise no one.

The official term agribusiness will use to refer to Austin “Jack” DeCoster, the owner of the farm that produced the tainted eggs, is “bad apple.” That’s what they call anyone who gets caught for outrageous ethical breaches in agriculture. Farmers who are caught abusing their animals and workers, committing flagrant environmental crimes, and selling record amounts of tainted food are all “bad apples.” The implication is that everyone else, those who haven’t made front-page headlines for their bad behavior, would never dream of doing such a thing on their farms.

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Reaching Across Time in the Sunset of Our Years

August 25, 2010
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Ahhh, what a time we had, my childhood friend from Tucson and I. Jim Hopkin.

Our visit was like a fantasy, as there was a time in our lives when neither he or I could have imagined a scenario wherein someday I would cruise up to a sidewalk in a nice “chine,” as we used to say, in front of Southwest Airlines and he jumps in and I whisk him to a Comfort Inn and we end the day in one of the hippest Mexican Cafe’s in town – with nary a soul in any of these places wearing a “P.U.” frown.

Back then we knew no one who had flown any where – the concept of a “colored” person staying in a hotel had not yet been implanted in our young minds – and we couldn’t eat in a cafe unless the sign above it read Jack’s Barbeque or Duke’s Drive-In.

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Second Ocean Beach Forum on homelessness gets serious

August 25, 2010
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The second in a series of Community Forums on the homeless and homelessness in Ocean Beach was held last night, Tuesday, August 24th. The First Baptist Church on the corner of Sunset Cliffs Blvd and Santa Monica had opened their doors to the neighborhood, offering pastries, juices, coffee, etc. The event was organized by the OB Inter-Faith Community – a grouping of about a half dozen local churches.

About sixty people crowded into the assembly hall. After some brief intros by Jack Hamlin, we were directed to choose one of four areas to meet over – public facilities, community, government, and activities.

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Mother harassed for breastfeeding in Orange County store – organizes a ‘nurse-in’

August 25, 2010
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A Southern California mother is outraged she was asked to stop breastfeeding her baby in public.

Rose Homme, a mother of two from Orange County, said the incident happened Friday at the Cost Plus World Market located at the Village at Orange. She was there shopping with her mother and two children, a 3-year-old daughter and a 10-month-old son.

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OB Lawyer Rant: Town Council motives to bar Gormlie should be questioned

August 25, 2010

by Anonymous OB Lawyer

Since this would appear to be an interpretation of an organization’s bylaws…I would want to know more about what the definition of “work” in OB means. Is there a further definition of what “work” means. Does it indicate that a person must work for a business that has a property and license in OB? If the bylaws are silent on this, then it really isn’t a stretch to say that Frank might qualify as “working” in OB.

In a civil court of law…making an argument that a PO Box doesn’t count would be a very very weak argument….

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Democracy, the OB Town Council, and Grassroots Activism

August 26, 2010
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Last night at their packed public meeting, I pleaded with the Ocean Beach Town Council to allow me to remain a candidate on their ballot for the annual Board election which has just begun.

They didn’t, and without a discussion or even a vote among Board members, Town Council president Jim Musgrove ruled against me. Jim Musgrove came into the meeting having already made up his mind: Gormlie was off the ballot.

In the amidst of their agenda, the Council slid into their advertised “Candidate Forum” …

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‘Dear Abby’ Falls Off Comic Page: Sizing Up the New U-T

August 26, 2010
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Last March, after one of my semi-annual rants about the local daily newspaper, I received a most unusual invitation. Jeff Light, newly ensconced as Union-Tribune editor, asked me out to lunch. I wasn’t expecting a free lunch and conversation; I was just trying to get a letter to the editor published. After I cleaned the froth off my monitor—it was one of those moments when I shouldn’t have chugging diet Dr Pepper while reading my email–, I typed “sure, let’s do it” and hit the send button.

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OB says no to dense development

August 26, 2010
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OCEAN BEACH — The main advisory group for land use and development in Ocean Beach has rebuffed a proposal that could weaken building restrictions in the coastal community. The Ocean Beach Planning Board this month unanimously rejected plans to change what many architects and bureaucrats refer to as the “floor area ratio” and bring it in line with standards in place across the city. Board members argued that increasing the current ratio or relaxing parking requirements could spur too much development and lead to the eradication of an estimated 300 to 400 historic cottages.

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Rep. Bilbray embraces Ties With Alleged Hate Group

August 27, 2010
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SOLANA BEACH, Calif. — Local Rep. Brian Bilbray is counting on his tough stand on illegal immigration to earn him another term in Congress, but some of his detractors said he will do anything to win, including working with an alleged hate group to push his anti-immigration agenda.

The 10News I-Team learned Bilbray is on the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s (FAIR) board of advisors, spent three years as a lobbyist for the group where he earned $300,000 and has accepted campaign contributions from FAIR political action committees.

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Over a third of all San Diego homeless are vets

August 27, 2010
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by Dylan Mann / Voice of San Diego / Originally posted August 25, 2010

You see them in the medians at intersections and at the bottom of freeway off-ramps. Suntanned and weary in camouflage pants, they hold magic-markered signs announcing: “HOMELESS VET — ANYTHING HELPS — GOD BLESS.” And you feel empathy for them, don’t you? No matter what you think of our nation’s military campaigns, it’s undeniable that here before you is a person that once served our country, but now he sleeps outside and isn’t sure when he’ll eat next.

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U-T: OB Rag publisher removed from town council ballot

August 27, 2010
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By Christopher Cadelago / UNION-TRIBUNE /August 26, 2010

OCEAN BEACH — It’s official. Frank Gormlie, the activist, lawyer and co-founder of the OB Rag, will not be on the ballot as a candidate for the Ocean Beach Town Council’s board of directors. Gormlie, who hoped to be one of eight candidates – including six incumbents – vying for seven seats on the dais, had been told that because the business was based out of his Lemon Grove home, he was not eligible to run.

At town council meeting Wednesday night, Gormlie said he had secured a lease in Ocean Beach to house his business, but was told he was still not eligible to run because he did not submit the business address by the Aug. 16 deadline.

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University of Phoenix, ITT Tech: Scams That Leave You “Dumber” and Poorer

August 31, 2010
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If you’ve spent any length of time in an urban community in the U.S., I’m sure you’ve seen the ads on public transportation or heard the television commercials from schools where you can train to be a medical assistant or a computer technician. But before you or someone you know signs up for a “promising career” at one of those for-profit colleges, take heed!

For-profit colleges have been around for years. The University of Phoenix, …

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What Obama Won’t Say Tonight

August 31, 2010
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By Ray McGovern

President Barack Obama’s aides say his speech this evening marking the end of “combat operations” in Iraq will avoid the vainglorious aspects of President George W. Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech in 2003. We’ll see.

On the chance Obama might be open to pivoting away from the reduction of U.S. troops in Iraq and addressing honestly the worsening quagmire in Afghanistan. I have offered him the following text:

My Fellow Americans,

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